A couple from a village in Loiret, exposed to CVM, a carcinogenic gas present in their tap water, filed an appeal before the administrative court of Orléans to have the “culpable negligence“from the Ministry of Health, we learned Friday from their lawyer.”This appeal, a first in France, aims to recognize the responsibility of the State, the culpable negligence of the Ministry of Health, but also to recognize the harm suffered by these users who feel abandoned“, declared Me Gabrièle Gien, their lawyer, specialized in environmental law, confirming press information.
Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) is a gas, present in PVC drinking water pipes installed in the 1970s, classified as carcinogenic.certain“since 1987 and which causes liver cancer in particular, according to the website of the Ministry of Health. For Me Gien, “its customers are at their wits’ end, the information was hidden from them for a long time that their water was not drinkable, even though a 1998 European directive sets the MVC value not to exceed 0.5 micrograms per liter“. A value “never respected even though the State had to comply in 2003“, she told AFP.
In the couple’s village, in Châtenoy, for example, it was necessary to wait until 2023 for the water to be declared unfit for consumption, even though traces of CVM had been noted in 2014. The lawyer has also just launched a platform national to identify other victims, possibly “everywhere in France“.
“Only work on the pipes concerned can guarantee lasting compliance with the CVM.“, writes the Ministry of Health on its site, which mentions between “50,000 km and 340,000 km of pipes concerned, depending on the data sources“. In addition to this case, a hearing before the Orléans judicial court must be held on March 13, users having sued their water supplier, the Syndicat intercommunal d’adduction d’eau potable (Siaep), for failure to information and lack of drinking water distribution.
